A Tale of Three Times ThreeOr Something
by k13aquamarine
Summary: Takes place at the Western Air Temple, in which Sokka, Zuko and Aang go on a manly camping trip; Suki, Katara and Toph have a relaxing day of gossip; and Haru, Teo and The Duke have various misadventures. Mischief, chaos  and maybe some slash  ensue!crack
1. Man Juice

**A/N: This is a compilation between me, my sister and my bestie :3 We don't own Avatar The Last Airbender (no matter how much we want to!). We just love crack fics.**

**This is a little filler that takes place at the Western Air Temple. Mischief and chaos (and maybe even some slash) ensue! This is chapter one, in which Sokka yearns to have a male-bonding experience with two of the less-manly characters in the show. Should be interesting, hope you enjoy!**

**Man-Juice**

It was only a sliver of sun above the horizon, but it was enough to shine through the crack between Appa's eyelids. The giant, furry bison yawned, stood up groggily, and shifted so he faced the opposite direction. He did not have the opportunity to drift back into the deep slumber that the sun had so rudely stolen from him, because someone promptly began fastening his saddle and packing it with supplies. He lifted his great head to give Aang a perturbed look. The airbender said sympathetically, "Sorry, Appa. You can sleep in when we get there. You know Sokka's been planning this trip ever since he and Zuko came back from the Boiling Rock."

The bison yawned resentfully. The loud watertribesman never got up early, and was probably still sleeping right now, leaving the toil of this trip to Appa and the other two men involved. In fact, he noticed Zuko attempting to rouse him right now.

"Yue," Sokka was mumbling as he wriggled around in his sleeping bag. "Stay out of the koi pond!"

Zuko, who had been trying to gently coax him into consciousness, became impatient and quickened the process by growling in frustration and applying a quick burst of flame to the ground beneath the sleeping, muttering Sokka.

Sokka hopped up in his sleeping bag. "Ah! Ah! Hot hot hot!" And he tripped and fell backwards into the fountain. "Aaahh…" he sighed, steam trailing upward from the bag. After he had been satisfactorily soothed, Sokka glared up at Zuko. "What was that?" He tumbled out of the fountain, spilling water all over the stone. "Don't you know it's dangerous to wake up a sleeping warrior? I could have killed you with my space sword before I was awake enough to realize it was you!"

Zuko glared back at the sleeping-bag-cocooned boy on the ground. "You can't even move your arms right now. I'm not all that worried." Zuko chuckled to himself. "Even if you could move…"

Sokka jumped up and started hopping after Zuko. "What is that supposed to mean? I'll have you know, I am a great—" He tripped again and hit the ground in front of Zuko's feet.

"Uh-huh," Zuko nodded. "Have you forgotten that you are the one who imposed this camping trip upon us?"

"It's not a camping trip!" Sokka retorted. "It is a man-trip!"

"Well, you've already done that—"

"It is a journey of self-discovery and male-bonding," Sokka said, ignoring Zuko's comment. "Fueled purely on testosterone and man-juice!"

Zuko and Aang adopted weary looks at the thought of Sokka's "man-juice."

Sokka wriggled himself up off of the ground. "So stop standing around, and let's get going! You guys are acting like a couple of lazy girls!"

"Excuse me?" Suki came down off of Appa's saddle, where she had been fastening down supplies. "What was that you just said Sokka?" Suki glared at Sokka through one eye, her hands balled into fists on her hips.

"I wasn't referring to _you_ Suki, you're anything but lazy!" Sokka gushed.

"I know!" Suki lithely kissed Sokka on the cheek.

"Really Sokka? We've been working since sun-rise because that's the time you said you're little camping trip was going to start," Katara exclaimed as she came around the other side of the fountain, bending water into a water pouch.

"How many times do I have to say it? This is not a _camping_ trip! It is a MAN-JUICE-TRIP!" Then Sokka muttered, "With camping, and maybe some tents, on a mountain somewhere. _Maybe_."

"Whatever. The fact of the matter is that Zuko and Aang have been doing all the preparing while you were catching up on your beauty sleep."

"And you need it! Trust me!" Toph cut Katara off, ignoring the dirt all over her from her rock tent.

"Toph, you have even less room to talk," Katara retorted, ignoring the joke. "You do even less than Sokka does unless we're fighting."

"But I bend metal!" Toph exclaimed.

"Uh, guys?" Aang said, trying to keep the argument from escalating.

"What?" Toph and Katara shouted at the same time, then looked at each other in embarrassment.

"Could we get going soon? I agree with Sokka and think that some male-bonding time would be a good thing." Then he shuddered. "But hopefully without any 'man-juice'."

"There is going to be SO MUCH MAN-JUICE you will be swimming in it!" Sokka raged.

At that point, Appa noticed the young scarred one walking off, shaking his head. Haru called from behind him, "What's this about 'man-juice'?" Turning back around, Appa saw the young earth bender coming from an entrance into the building.

"Yeah, Zuko, Aang and I are going on a man-trip! For the male-bonding!" Sokka stated proudly.

"Well, what about us? Aren't we manly enough for your little trip?" Teo asked, wheeling in from the direction Haru had come from, followed by The Duke.

"It's for the main central group only, sorry guys," said Sokka

"Seriously? You're taking Zuko along, but not me? I've been an ally ever since I first met you guys! He can't say that!" Haru exclaimed. Then, stroking his newly grown goatee and mustache, "I know I am most certainly manly enough."

"Sokka thinks that since there are nine of us, we should split into groups of three." Katara stood next to Haru, her hands on her hips. "He thinks it's an optimal way to split us up."

"Well, duh! We can't cut one of us in half to have two groups." Sokka ejaculated animatedly (You know, in the old sense of the word…). "This way, Zuko, Aang and I can work off each other in case there is a problem. With only three of us gone, you six can defend the headquarters without being overrun."

"Sokka, if Azula were to attack us, it wouldn't matter if there were nine or six of us here. She alone could take us out."

Zuko returned. "I'm tired of this, are we leaving or not?" He slung himself up onto Appa's back and glared down at the others.

"I guess we're going now," Aang consented, bending himself up onto Appa's head in a fluid jump. Sokka shrugged and followed Aang up, with much less flair.

"We'll see you tomorrow then," the now much less grouchy, ex-fire nation prince said to the six left on the ground.

"You guys have fun!" Suki called after the retreating flying bison.

"Yeah, have fun on your 'trip of manly-juiciness'," Haru muttered bitterly.

"Hey Haru, it doesn't matter that much. So what if they get to go on a totally awesome field trip with the Avatar!" Teo patted Haru on the back.

"Thanks Teo, get your hand off my ass. And for some reason, you saying that does not cheer me up."

"Well, I know something that will cheer you up! We can go on our own adventure with our own man-juice!"

"You know what, that sounds nice. Let's go do that. Only please without the man-juice."

"Well what's the matter, you wanted Sokka's man-juice," The Duke piped up innocently.

"Th-that's not what I said!" Haru defended, blushing wildly as he pushed past them and strode toward the entrance to the temple. The Duke and Teo shared a shrug and followed.


	2. Brrrrraahhhhh

**Because of bad reviews, I took out the Snap Crackle Pop chapters and created a separate story just for them. You can read that in my profile if you were actually following that one.**

* * *

"Brrrrraaahhh!"

"What was that?"

"I don't know!"

"Aaaaggghhh! Something's crawling up my leg!"

"That's Momo, Sokka."

"Oh…."

"Brrrrraaaaraaahhh."

"There it is again, what is that?"

The three "men" sat around a fire, staring out into the darkness. The morning hadn't gone as smoothly (or manly) as planned. After flying around for hours arguing over the perfect spot to land—Sokka wanted to camp in the roughest terrain possible, to ensure ample opportunities to prove their manhood, while Zuko remarked that Sokka had no idea what he was doing, and Aang eventually decided that they seemed to be fighting like an old married couple on vacation, at which point Sokka pointed to a spot and Zuko promptly agreed to it—they had begun to make camp. Sokka had insisted on having a "magic-free" camping trip, so Aang and Zuko were not permitted to use their elemental abilities. That would make it too easy.

"You would have us sit around like a bunch of fat and happy cats while all of your superpowers do all the work! We are men and men don't do things the easy way!"

"Work smarter, not harder, Sokka."

"You're the worst offender, Mister Avatar! You couldn't live for one day without your magical avatar powers"—Sokka waved his hands about his head as he said this—"don't deny it!"

"I'm not," Aang said. "But I wish I didn't have them." He looked down at a point in space that seemed a good spot to stare at during a moment of melancholy. "I wish I was never the Avatar."

There were a few moments of silence. "If you weren't though, you would have died with all of your people back when the Fire Nation…" Another awkward silence.

Simultaneously (Aang forlornly and Sokka sarcastically), "Thanks Zuko."

Sokka pushed the previous topic. "Still though. I bet neither of you can get through this camping trip without using your bending. Hey, I have a great idea!"

Aang and Zuko exchanged unsure glances.

"Let's make a bet! Neither of you use your bending, and whoever cracks first has to give Appa a bath."

Zuko crossed his arms. "What about you?"

"What about me? I can't bend, I have to live with that every day."

"You have to give up something to."

"Like what?"

"Sarcasm," Aang said without hesitation. "You can't be sarcastic for this entire trip." Sokka opened his mouth. "Starting now." He closed it again.

"So it's a bet then," Zuko said. "We give up our bending, and you give up your sarcasm. Whoever breaks the conditions of the bet first will have to completely clean Appa."

"Fine," grumbled Sokka. He looked up at the sky. "It's getting dark, I think we should make a fire." Sokka pointedly glared at Zuko.

"Sounds like a plan." Zuko promptly gathered sticks and tinder. He efficiently made a fire pit and pyramid of sticks. Using a flint he had in his pocket, he set the tinder on fire. He did this all in the span of five minutes. "Hey, I had to live in the Earth Kingdom for a while. I couldn't go flaunting my bending, could I?"

"Pfffftttt—" Sokka cut himself short.

"You have something to say Sokka?" Zuko asked innocently.

"No," Sokka growled.

Something caught Aang's attention at that moment. Thinking it couldn't be of consequence, he ignored it. Suddenly, a roar rocked through the clearing.

"Brrrraaaaaahhhhhh!"

And thus the three "men" found themselves huddled around their suddenly inadequate, hand-made fire.


	3. Gossip

"Hey that's mine! Who said you're allowed to read it?"

"Nobody," Toph answered.

"Let me see that!" Suki exclaimed excitedly. "Oh, is this your diary Katara?"

"No! Now give it back!"

"I can't believe you thought I was going to read it," Toph snickered.

"Well, if it's not your diary, then what is it?" Suki asked.

"It's just…" Katara started. "I just thought it would be a good idea to document our travels, that's all," she settled. "Travelling with the avatar is pretty important."

"Uh-huh." Suki flipped through the pile of scrolls. "Then why is there so much about someone named Jet?"

"Really?" Toph asked. "What does it say about him?"

"She just has things about how kind he is and brave… and a lot about his eyebrows."

"They're from the gods!" Katara sighed with an uncharacteristically wistful look on her face. She immediately became aware of two sets of raised eyebrows and spluttered, "Uh, I-I mean…he was very, um…kind."

"…"

"…And brave."

"I seem to remember you hated him in Ba Sing Se," Toph remarked.

"Yeah, well, he was a jerk before, but then he redeemed himself at Lake Laogai," Katara said. "I just hated him because—"

"He dumped you?"

"No!"

"Really?" Suki asked. "You sound pretty sensitive about it."

"He tried to kill a village full of innocent people!" Katara cried.

"…And he redeemed himself from that?" Toph said slowly.

"Well, he was all brave and…kind!"

"So you forgave him for trying to kill a bunch of people?" Suki asked.

"Well—"

"Admit it," Toph smirked. "You never really got over him."

"I—That's not it at all!"

"Isn't it?" Suki brandished the small book. "'If Jet expects me to just forgive him like that, after what he did to me—' not the village of innocent people, to you—' then he can rot in the Dai Lee dungeons for all I care.' Seems a little harsh. But the next page says, 'Jet was so selfless and heroic when he helped us in Laogai and I couldn't help but fall to his side when he fell and try to help him too.'"

"Okay, that's enough, give it back." Katara reached for the book, but Suki held it away from her.

"'It was so brave the way he wouldn't let me heal his wounds, and tried to assure me everything would be all right. Of course it wouldn't be all right!'"

"Seriously, give it back!"

"Keep reading!" Toph exclaimed. "This is great stuff!"

Suki continued melodramatically. "'I wonder how everything would be if things were different, if we hadn't broken apart and gone our separate ways. Would we still be together today? Or would something else have placed that wedge between us and forced us apart?'"

"You know," Toph said nonchalantly, "I kind of did get the impression that Jet might have been gay."

* * *

Zuko was staring into the fire in an uncharacteristically wistful manner. Apparently that "BRRRRRRAAAAHHHH!" sound from the night before had merely been a poor beggar who had wandered into their campsite from a nearby abandoned farm. When the scraggly man had stumbled over a sleeping Sokka and cried out, "BRRRRRAAAAHHH!" it was all the three could do to keep the conditions of their bet and not bend at the noise (or, in Sokka's case, crack jokes at it).

"Who are you?" Sokka interrogated once they all were alert.

The man grinned up at them, displaying his full mouth of four teeth, and said, "My name's Li. I came from the farm from over yonder." Li pointed in a direction with his left arm.

"Is that your real name?" Zuko asked suspiciously.

"Of course it is, why would I say it was otherwise?"

"Forget I said anything," Zuko answered sheepishly.

"What was that noise before, do you know?" Sokka asked in a very unsarcastic manner.

"Oh, that…It's an old family curse. Whenever I'm hungry I yell 'Braaaaahhh' uncontrollably."

Sokka raised his eyebrows and walked away with his lips pursed, unable to be in the proximity of such an irresistible target for irony.

"So you're hungry?" Aang asked innocently.

"How did you know?" the old man said cheerily.

"Just a feeling," Aang said, unsure of how to take this person.

"Well let's cook 'im up a meal then!" Sokka yelled from the fire pit, waving a frying pan. "I'm sure we're all just dying to eat, and I brought nothing but meat, so let's start cookin'!" He started up a fire enthusiastically and threw some meat in the pan. Zuko and Aang shrugged and beckoned Li to join them around Sokka, where they all made small talk.

"Yep, you can blame my old great-grand uncle Ned for that curse of mine."

"What did he do?" Aang asked.

Li brightened at his interest. "Story goes, he was s'posed to marry this girl, see. But right before their ceremony, he got really hungry, for no apparent reason. Turns out he hadn't eaten in days because he was so nervous."

Sokka gripped his fork tightly and clenched his teeth together.

"So he went searching for something to squelch his hunger, and he came across this plant. It looked so delicious, so he ate all of it that he could find. Well, then," Li gesticulated, his voice quieting for effect, "this spirit appeared. And the spirit was very angry with Ned, because he had eaten the last of the plants of that kind. And so the spirit cursed him and his family. And now everybody knows when anyone in our family is hungry."

Sokka started humming in attempt to divert his attention away from Li.

Zuko looked at Li curiously. "So everybody in your family makes that sound?"

"Sure do!" Li smiled toothlessly. "I've got it, and my mother's got it, and my sister's got it—well I don't have a sister, but if I did she would have it, that's for sure."

Sokka busied himself with serving breakfast, loudly slapping steaks onto their primitive dishes. He handed Li the first plate, and the stranger gladly accepted and began gnawing on his serving. Then he gave Zuko his plate, and then handed one to Aang.

Aang held up his hands, leaning back from the meat in front of his nose. "No thanks, Sokka. I'm a vegetarian, remember?"

"Hey!" Li looked at Aang with his mouth full of meat. "Me too!"

There was a moment of silence. Sokka slammed his forehead against his palm and sat back down with the rejected plate of food. As he dug into it himself, he said through gritted teeth, "So, Li. What were you doing in the forest last night?"

"Well I've been traveling through forests for a long time, doin' some soul-searching," Li explained.

"Really?" Aang asked. "How long have you been searching?"

"Well I don't know the exact amount," he said scratching the back of his neck. "But I had all my teeth at the start of it."

The three stared at him as he smiled widely at them. "That long, huh?" Zuko said.

"Yep, it's been a while," Li continued. "I'm sure glad I ran into you fellas. Last kids I ran into weren't nearly as hospitable as you. Almost tried to kill me in fact."

Sokka gulped down what was in his mouth. "Kill you?"

"What for?" Aang asked.

"Not sure, really," the old man answered. "Wasn't in this forest though, so you need not worry. They were sure an interesting bunch of kids though. Called themselves 'Freedom Fighters,' or something."

"Freedom Fighters?" the three boys asked in unison.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to run into them again. Lived in the trees and harassed passing travelers." Li took another bite of his meat and hastily swallowed it.

"This wouldn't happen to be a group led by an arrogant, fluffy-haired teenager with a cynical attitude, an affinity for hay and ridiculous eyebrows, would it?" Sokka remarked.

"You know, that sounds just like him, now that I think about it!" Li said. "Have you heard of 'em?"

Sokka and Aang exchanged a meaningful look. "We've met before," he explained.

"Really?" Li asked, intrigued. "Did he ambush you too?"

"Not exactly," Sokka answered. "Actually, he…" He looked at Aang, who finished for him.

"Jet's dead now," Aang said solemnly.

Zuko's eyes widened, and Li looked impressed. "So ya got rid of 'im, did ya? Well good riddance! That kid was nothing but trouble for people."

"No," Aang continued. "He died trying to help us in Ba Sing Se."

Zuko stared into the fire, eyes narrowed and face contemplative. The rest of the party silently turned their attention to the flames as well, each lost in thought.

"Welp, we all gotta go sometime, right?" Li interrupted the solemn atmosphere. "Speaking of, I gotta go. Thanks for the food fellas. Catch you all on the flip side!" He stood and stumbled away, back into the forest, leaving the other three in a reverie.

After a while, Zuko asked, "Is that really true?"

"What?" Aang asked.

"Jet, is he really…?" He trailed off, unable to finish it.

"What do you care?" Sokka snapped. "You didn't even know him."

Zuko stared at the ground. "Yes I did."

* * *

"What are you talking about?" Katara exclaimed.

"Believe me, I can sense these things. You apparently were too blinded by his eye brows to notice." Toph smirked.

"No you can't! How could you? You can't even see!" Katara shouted indignantly.

"I got this vibe. Just like I can sense Aang is a twinkletoes."

"Ok, I am done talking about this! Moving on. Find something else from my journal to misread."

Suki, who had been suspiciously quiet during Toph and Katara's exchange, bursted out laughing. "Haru? Are you serious?"

* * *

"Achoo!" Haru sneezed all of a sudden.

"Bless you," Teo said cheerfully.

* * *

Katara blushed a deep red. She tried to snatch the book back from Suki again, more desperately this time, but Suki deftly parried Katara's efforts.

"Let's see…. Oh, this is good! 'I'm so glad I met Haru, he actually understands me! We both lost our parents because of the Fire Nation. I feel like I could talk to Haru all day.' This is terrible!" Suki almost fell down laughing.

"Terrible? This is wonderful!" Toph smiled evilly. "You need to read on."

"'Today, Haru was arrested, and it was all my fault! If I hadn't told him to move those boulders, if I hadn't pleaded for him to save that treacherous man….I know what I have to do now. I need to get myself arrested so I can save him. I'm going to pretend I'm earth bending and then have them arrest me—' Are you serious? This is the worst plan ever!"

"It didn't work out that well," Katara muttered. She decided that since the other two weren't going to listen to her, she might as well give up.

"Ok, let me find the next entry. 'I can't believe the guards thought Momo was earth bending. Oh well, it doesn't matter, because I managed to get arrested anyway. I was able to save Haru and all of the other earth benders by leading a revolt. I must say I should probably consider writing motivational speeches for a career. There might be something there for me.'"

"They thought Momo was earth bending?" Toph giggled at the ridiculousness of it.

"Yeah."

"Wow," she mused. "Fire Nation soldiers are dumber than I thought."

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Sokka said. "Jet asked you to join him and the Freedom Fighters, you turned him down, then he found out you were a fire bender, at which point he started stalking you and trying to get you arrested?"

"Yeah. I told you I knew him."

"Sounds like he didn't just want you to be a part of his group." Sokka smirked, unsarcastically.

"What?" Zuko blushed.

"Nothing! Nothing. Although I gotta say, there always seemed to be something…odd about him."

"You mean besides the murderous tendencies?"

"What are you saying?" Zuko demanded.

"I dunno, I just think it's kinda weird that he decided to go all stalker after you turned down his Freedom Fighter gig. He didn't get that way after Katara froze him to a tree and left him there. Sounds like he couldn't take rejection well. He really wanted you to join, huh?"

"I'm done with this conversation," Zuko snapped. He got up and walked off in a random direction.

"Is it getting too personal for you?" Sokka called after him.

"_I have a girlfriend!_" Zuko shot back over his shoulder.

* * *

"Katara used to be your girlfriend?" Teo asked, less disbelieving and more amused.

"Yeah, we had a thing," Haru answered, lounging against the base of a statue of a flying bison and mindlessly stroking his face.

"I wouldn't have guessed," Teo shrugged, fiddling with his breaks.

"Well, we tried to keep it quiet, you know. Didn't want people making a big deal out of it or anything." He yawned and nonchalantly threw an arm across one of the statue's paws.

Just then, the Duke came running in from a cavern behind Teo. "Would you guys stop being boring and come look at this? I found the most coolest thing ever!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms above his head to demonstrate just how cool the thing was. Teo and Haru looked at each other and shrugged.

"Let's see what this temple has to offer us," Teo said with a smile.

"Come one, come on, come on, come on!" The Duke's voice echoed continuously. Teo and Haru stared with wide eyes. They stepped into a giant room, The Duke grinning proudly at his discovery. "Check it out, check it out, check it out," overlapped with "Come one, come on come on," made it difficult for Haru and Teo to understand. The walls were made entirely of smooth crystal with rounded caverns everywhere. The three stood listening in awe until it finished.

"I found it when I went exploring after Teo crashed. I heard footsteps ahead of me, lots of them, and I was going to turn to get you guys, but instead I called out to see who was there, only to have my own voice answer me back. Then I found this place!" The Duke held up his arms and beamed proudly. "I really wish Pipsqueak were here to see this."

The Duke's speech reverberated against the walls and came back to them just as clear and loud, slowly dissipating.

"I have an idea," Teo said gleefully. "You know that game where people sit in a circle and the first person whispers in the next person's ear and they continue that until they reach the end?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, why don't we do that, only we stand on opposite sides of the chamber!"

"I think it would be fun!" The Duke smiled, the excitement of a new game flashing through his eyes.

"That doesn't seem very manly to me!"

"Haru, we don't need to be 'manly' to have fun." Teo's face became downcast at the older boys immediate naysay.

"Could you imagine telling Sokka—and Aang," Haru hastily added, "that we played a silly child's game while they were off on their manly adventure of man-juice?"

"You're really caught up on this, aren't you?" Teo asked, concern furrowing his brow.

"Seriously! They take Zuko instead of one of us with them! He's a traitor! He betrayed his father and you can never trust someone like that."

"Yeah, but his father is evil."

"That doesn't matter, he still betrayed him."

"Ugh! Enough of this, are we going to play this game or stand around gossiping like a bunch of girls?"

Haru blustered and said that gossiping would be far worse than playing a game, so they set about playing. The each took a place far away from the rest and took turns shouting to each other. "I can beat Toph at bending rocks" turned into "My platypus bear likes to drink from cups." After a few rounds the three boys became bored and set out to explore some more.

* * *

Momo huddled in one of the crystal caves in the room of voices, watching the three Earth Kingdom characters. Momo didn't know where all of the voices were coming from, but it seemed that the humans down there were able to set them off. Finally, they grew tired of hearing the voices and left, and eventually the chamber went silent. He came out of his huddle and chirped softly. Then another chirp answered him; there was another lemur in the chamber! He perked his ears up and chirped again, listening for the source of the answer. The response seemed to come from everywhere else.

Perplexed, Momo began flying throughout the chamber, chirping and listening to the other lemur's chirps, trying to find the echoer; but the more he tried, the more lemurs he heard chirping back at him. This room was full of flying lemurs just like him, but he couldn't see head nor tail of them anywhere! He could hear all of them, but man were they all good at hiding!

But Momo kept trying. Diligently, he searched and searched, chirping and listening, resolved to look until he found these other lemurs, once and for all!

…Or until he got hungry. He really wanted some nice beetles to snack on.

Momo thought this a far better pastime than…whatever he was doing. He had forgotten by now. He had some beetles to catch!

Mmmm…Beetles.

* * *

**So this has been sitting in a computer for a while, we just finished it today. See if you can find the slight inconsistencies in the story that come with having three writers! Hope you guys like the chapter! We made a nice long one for you since we're so sporadic about updating.**

**Yes, Momo is at the campsite AND the temple at the same time. Why? Because he's boss.**


	4. Friendships

**Time for a new chapter! There are some tender moments in this one, it's apparently the theme for this chapter. Talking about relationships. We'll be sure to make it all cracky again later.**

**Also I wanted to know if anyone would be interested in watching a Youtube show where my sister and I read and critique and laugh about trends and clichés in fanfiction. We will start with a story our friend sent us (fandom is 8-bit theater webcomic) and hopefully, if people are interested, they can send us their own stories. Basically we read them for the first time and everything is first-impression comments and critiques. Hopefully we can address funny clichés and common mistakes and I'll talk about the things I love and hate about the genre. The goal is ultimately to help anyone who is looking to improve their fanfiction stories, but to be funny and interesting doing it. If anyone is interested, please let me know in a review or private message. Or if you would like to send us your story (we know a lot of fandoms, and if I don't know it I'll do what I can to know it or get some friends who do) then send me a link or the whole story to fanfictioncritics (at) gmail (dot) com. Sorry to spam you with all of this, but I'm interested in making the show and want to know if people are interested in watching it! You can go ahead and read your story now.**

* * *

"All right, now that we are done analyzing my thoughts," Katara said as she snatched her diary (which is either a pile of scrolls or a small book, depending on how you look at it) out of Suki's hands. Suki and Toph laughed at Katara's embarrassment.

"Yeah, I think 'Deep Thoughts with Katara' is over for today," Toph snickered.

"I really liked 'Aunt Woo's psychic abilities are sort of like mind-bending if you think about it.'"

"Oh shut up! I never intended anyone else to read it!" Katara stalked off, away from her antagonists.

"Maybe we should do something to cool off?" Suki said to Katara's back. "I wonder if there's a pool or hot spring here." Katara sighed at that.

"Yeah, that sounds nice. I haven't washed in a while. How about we see if we can find something nearby?" Katara continued towards one of the openings.

"Can you feel anything, Toph?" Suki asked the young earth bender.

"This place is full of huge rooms, but I think we might find something if we head that way." Toph pointed in the opposite direction of where Katara was headed. Katara blushed and turned around past the other two girls.

"Well, let's see what we can find."

* * *

"I found something!" Teo called from down a passage. The three boys had come to a conveniently three pronged fork in the tunnels. They each had taken one fork and would turn back when they found something or another fork.

Haru and The Duke came back down their passages, interested to hear what Teo had to show them. They rushed to see what it could be.

At the end of the tunnel was a swift, shallow stream coursing through a smooth rock bed.

"You have hit the jackpot, my friend." Haru clapped his hand on Teo's shoulder. Teo smiled up.

"Who wants to go fi—"

"Me! Me!" The Duke cried out. Teo smiled. He knew The Duke would want to go first, totally disregarding the consequences.

"Why don't we all go together?" Haru looked uneasily at the water.

"Scared?" Teo teased.

"Of course not!" Haru answered angrily. "What are we going to do with your chair, anway?"

"We could send it first."

"Let's go! Let's go!" The Duke pulled the older boys' sleeves.

"We're going to be so soaked!" Haru exclaimed while Teo sent his chair down first.

"You ready?" Teo grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Let's go!" The Duke dragged the other two boys with him and they went down the river into the dark, screaming with terror and excitement.

* * *

"It's beautiful!" Suki exclaimed as she looked around. They had found a giant room with an equally giant pool. The water was hot, but not as hot as a hot spring could be. Katara settled into the water and sighed as it soothed her muscles.

"This is so nice," Toph exclaimed.

"I thought you didn't like washing away the dirt on you?" Katara asked peevishly.

"I just said I don't care to. How I look doesn't matter to me."

"Right." Katara looked at the walls of the room. They were covered with giant murals of flying bison, air symbols and other air temples. "Air bender temples must have all been so beautiful," Katara mused.

"Anyone else…feel that?" Toph asked, her eyebrows drawn together.

"Feel what?" Katara said.

"_That_."

"I can only feel the water pouring in. Is that what you're talking about?"

Toph stood up and waded to the wall where the water was running down into the pool. She put her hands and her ear against the wall and listened.

"There's something…" she trailed off. Katara and Suki listened. Now that Toph had brought it up, they _did_ hear something peculiar. Sort of like a…humming sound? It was getting louder… Maybe it was more like singing? Or…no, wailing. Or maybe…?

It was even louder now, echoing around the chamber from the large, inclined tunnel that gently poured water down the wall from directly above where Toph was standing. All of their eyes narrowed as they listened, and the first thing that happened was some contraption shooting out of the tunnel and splashing into the pool.

"What is _that?"_ Suki said, startled, and they all made their way over to examine it. Before they had reached it, though, that loud sound—they could definitely identify it now, and it was definitely screaming—had reached the top of its crescendo as a tangled, flailing heap of bodies and limbs was thrown from the same tunnel and flew through the air. The three girls screamed as they tried to scramble out of the way before Haru, Teo and The Duke all came crashing down on them. The impact sent a huge wave up into the air and gravity sent it back down on top of their heads.

Six heads resurfaced, spluttering and laughing and coughing and shouting, "That was so _awesome!"_

When the Earth Kingdom kids realized they weren't the first ones there, reactions were varied. The Duke began immediately retelling the stories of their adventures and about the enormous water slide that had led them there. Teo, who was hanging onto Haru's shoulders to keep above the water, smiled and greeted them all a bit sheepishly, and Haru, noticing the scanty clothing the girls were wearing and realizing they had been _bathing_, turned a deep, embarrassed shade of red. He would have let himself sink to the bottom of that pool and stay there if it weren't for Teo clinging to him dependently.

"That looked like fun! Where did you come from?" Suki cried out.

"We were exploring and Teo found a water slide! It was so much fun, do you three want to go down too?" The Duke explained feverishly.

"Did you guys have any idea where it was headed?"

"No, of course not!" Haru blurted out. "Cause, you know, if we did know that it led here where you girls were…" he gesticulated awkwardly in their direction. "Um… If we knew you were here we totally wouldn't have just dropped in on you like this, that would have been tasteless and inappropriate and…" He swallowed the rest of his words and cast his eyes down away from several raised eyebrows.

"Right…"

"Do you three want to go down too?" The Duke asked again, excited. Haru inwardly thanked the kid for stealing their attention back away from himself. "Because I wanna go down it again!" He scrambled out of the pool and started practically bouncing impatiently. The girls started to climb out too.

When they all had emerged from the water and looked down expectantly at the remaining two, Teo held up a hand and said, "Thanks, but I think I'll sit this one out. Once was enough for me!" Haru sighed in relief again and announced he would stay to keep Teo company. He swore, it's like these kids could sense how awkward he felt and knew exactly what to do to help him. Granted, his awkwardness was rather palpable at present. He just didn't want to fall into any more odd situations, and going down a crazy waterslide with three girls he had just found bathing (H'oh god!) would be exactly the opposite of the thing to do to avoid said situations. So he would stay with Teo.

The others shrugged and raced off to find the entrance to the tunnel again. Once they were gone, Haru sighed in relief.

"You have quite a way with words, don't you?" Teo remarked, his voice just by Haru's ear.

Haru groaned in response and smacked his face against the water. Teo laughed warmly.

* * *

"You have quite a way with words, Sokka," Aang said, watching the space where Zuko was before he stormed off into the brush.

"Hey, I just call it like I see it," he replied shrugging his shoulders. "It's not my fault Zuko's uncomfortable with himself, or whatever."

Aang looked thoughtfully down at the fire. "Well, maybe it's not himself he's uncomfortable with."

"I'm not following."

"By the sounds of it, Zuko and Jet were really good friends. At least before Jet figured out he was fire nation. Don't you think that, because Jet's dead now, Zuko wants to remember their friendship before it turned sour? It's the one good thing about Jet he can hold onto. And now, you're sort of warping Zuko's perception of the friendship they had, and that's what's making Zuko mad. Because you've kind of ruined it."

Sokka's face had been drooping more and more, until finally he collapsed under the pressing guilt. "Aagh! I hate it when you're right!" He stood up and followed Zuko through the darkness, leaving Aang and Appa behind.

When Sokka found him, Zuko was sitting against the base of the tree staring upward. He took a deep breath before approaching him and sitting down. A few moments passed before either of them spoke.

"Sorry I implied you and Jet were…y'know…'special,'" Sokka mumbled.

"You were right though," Zuko said.

"What?"

"About Jet," he corrected. He had turned his head to stare at Sokka blankly. "Not me. I have a girlfriend," he reminded him.

"Oh…" This was a bit…awkward. "So…you knew?"

"Well I thought I was just being paranoid. But if you think the same thing about him, then it can't just be based in paranoia. There must be some truth to it." He was looking at the ground in front of him now. "But at the time," he continued, "I just didn't want to face something like that. I was afraid I wouldn't know how to respond. Or he would find out I was fire nation and hate me, but I guess that happened anyway." He sighed, and Sokka turned his bewildered gaze to the sky.

"Look," he said. "It doesn't matter the nature of Jet's feelings toward you. What matters is that they were there. If nothing else, he thought you would at least be his friend, and I think that's what you were afraid of. Getting close to someone in any way, platonic or otherwise." He looked at Zuko to gauge his reaction, but Zuko's face was cast downward and remained blank. He took another deep breath and pushed on. "Jet probably felt hurt when you turned down the Freedom Fighters because it was like turning down his friendship. On top of that, he felt betrayed when he found out you were a fire bender. But he obviously cared because he went through all that trouble to _stalk_ you and try to get you arrested. He just could never get over his grudge against the fire nation. Believe me, this grudge nearly cost a village of bystanders their lives."

Zuko's reaction was the last thing Sokka expected. He chuckled—the guy was _laughing_ at the prospect of Jet killing a bunch of people—and lifted his head. "Yeah, that sounds like him," he said.

Sokka, eyes wide with surprise, said nothing as he turned slowly to look straight ahead of him.

"Thanks," Zuko muttered.

"Yeah."

* * *

"Ahem, so…" Haru rubbed the back of his neck, trying to break the vast silence surrounding him and Teo in the vast cavernous room.

Teo chuckled a little. "You don't need to feel so awkward all the time," he said. "Especially around me." He flashed Haru a smile.

Haru coughed at that and blushed a little. "Uh…"

"Seriously, relax. It's not like I'm constantly judging you or anything. And nobody else is either, for that matter."

Haru did relax a little at that. "Yeah, I guess," he said, letting out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding in. "Thanks."

Teo shrugged. "What are friends for?"

Haru blushed. "Yeah…friends."

"Speaking of what friends are for," Teo began.

"I got it covered!" Haru swam for Teo's chair, eager to help, and dove down to get it. They resurfaced, Teo coughing and spluttering.

"Warn me before you do that next time, huh?"

"Oh, right," Haru said sheepishly. "Woops." He made his way gently to the wall so Teo could hang onto it. Then, once Haru and the chair were safely on solid ground, Haru lifted Teo out of the water and carried him to the contraption, helping him in. They both tried to ignore the way Haru carried him like a princess and the proximity of their flushed faces as one friend helped the other. But ignoring it was made easier by the loud screams and cheers of four people splashing into the pool, one right after another.

"That was awesome!"

"I _told _you!"

Haru and Teo shared a small smile before casually greeting the rest of the party.

* * *

Aang saw Zuko and Sokka walking back to the campsite together and greeted them.

"Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Sokka waved a carefree hand. "Prince Emotional and Sir Sensitivity-Training have it all worked out." He plopped down on a log and started gnawing on some leftover meat from breakfast.

Aang looked at Zuko and Zuko nodded to him. Aang smiled and they sat back down and shared an easy silence.

* * *

**Ah! Apparently our habits of analyzing characters have leaked into this fandom too! D: Don't worry, this'll be complete crack again by the next chapter.**

**I meant to say this before, but I forgot: I think the reason we explained the Jeko relationship like that is because it was as canon as we could get without being all self-indulgent about it and without falling out of character. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Jeko (it's like my OTP of Avatar) but it simply isn't canon and we can't really make it seem...real enough if we do end up making it slash.**

**Also I wanted to hear your fear/disappointment when you thought Zuko was coming out of the closet and then didn't. XD**

**But maybe you can have some slash somewhere else... . **

**Oh, Haru. We torture you. ^-^;**


	5. The Bet

**I feel like I owe you guys an apology for not updating in months. So many months. But you know, life happens, you fall into other obsessions that are somehow more obsessive, you neglect a fanfiction for a long time. The well's beginning to run dry for this one. **

**Which isn't a huge tragedy, since this fic was intended to be lighthearted crack and a bit of filler and wasn't supposed to be very long. It's not really going anywhere significant. But we'll do our best to follow through with it to the end, just for the sake of closure, since you all seemed to enjoy it. (I mean, if there's something ya'll wanna see here, please feel free to throw out some ideas! This chapter's pretty short, but anything you'd like we can try to incorporate. It'd be pretty fun!)**

**Sorry again for the short chapter and long haitus! We'll catch up with the rest of the crew at the temple soon. :D**

"All right men!" Sokka sauntered up to Zuko, Aang and the diminishing fire. "I see we need more firewood, and we need to get food for dinner. Now it is time to hunt and gather like men!" Sokka pointed at the sky with his chest puffed out, while Zuko and Aang stared on, not all that impressed.

"Ok," Zuko said as his gaze returned to the fire as though it were a long lost lover.

"So! Aang, you go get some meat for us!"

Aang's cries of "Seriously? I don't even eat meat!" were ignored while Sokka told Zuko to collect firewood.

"And I will find whatever berries or other green stuff I can find for Aang," Sokka proclaimed.

With that the three boys went out on their own separate ways.

Aang sat next to a river he had found while on his search. In the water he spied silver flashing fish darting around.

"How am I even supposed to catch you?" he asked the fish. Unsurprisingly, they were not very forthcoming with that information. Sighing, Aang stood up. "I guess I could always make a net."

After about fifteen boring, uneventful minutes of making a net out of tall grass and sticks, Aang returned to the river.

"All right, fish. I'm sorry I have to do this, but I can't go back without you."

Stripping down to his underwear, Aang slipped into the water, keeping a close eye on the fish. He watched patiently as they swam around him, inspecting him as they went. A particularly large fish languidly swam towards Aang, and using the net, Aang struck the water. He watched as it flew directly in front of the fish!-only to have it swim away with the net behind it. Aang tried again.

And again. And again. All without success.

"What am I doing wrong here?" he cried, smacking a wet hand across his forehead. This would have been so easy for him if he was bending! Trap the fish in an air bubble or something and lift it right out-no big deal! But Sokka just _had_ to prove his manliness and wage this stupid bet!

No bending. Ridiculous! Aang bet Zuko was out there somewhere firebending right now, and he and Sokka wouldn't even know about it!

Wait a minute.

Aang's eyes darted about him. No sign of Sokka or Zuko or any other human besides himself. No one would ever know...

His bubble bending idea worked like a dream! He was having more fun playing with the fish than catching them, but he was filling up his net.

Zuko stumbled over roots, his arms laden with branches. Here he was, walking through a forest away from the fire and honor bound to not bend.

The work was tedious. Find a stick, bend over, pick it up, continue walking. It certainly wasn't mind-blowing, and it didn't keep his mind occupied. Find a stick, bend over, pick it up, continue walking.

A twig snapped to Zuko's left, breaking him from his stupor. "Who's there?" he called out. No answer. He tried to go into a warrior's stance, but the sticks naturally hindered him. After a few minutes of silence, Zuko continued his work, but this time he kept a wary ear and eye open for anything amiss.

Ahead Zuko heard a river gently plashing. He just realized he was thirsty, so how convenient that a freshwater source was presenting itself at this moment. Another snap. A soft growl. Zuko looked around, a little panicked, but again, he didn't see or hear anything. He picked up his pace and continued his course, hoping there was a clearing around the river. There he would be able to see whatever was following him, and if need be he could bend without setting the forest on fire. A plan in mind, Zuko walked with a surer, if not faster, step.

As he was about to reach the tree line, a sudden louder growl broke out behind him. The clearing was so close, he could see it. Zuko ran ahead and threw down his sticks. The growl stayed close on his tail, and Zuko spun around, barely looking and released a small fire blast. Enough to scare off an animal, but not enough to set the forest on fire (and get his friends' attention).

"Zuko?" exclaimed a young voice behind him. Zuko looked at the source and saw the young avatar holding his hands in the air, a fish in a sphere of water. The two benders looked at each other in shock. Aang quickly lowered his hands, but it was too late. Zuko had seen, but he knew that Aang had seen him too. They were at a stalemate. "Uh, hey Zuko. I got us some fish. They're in the net I wove. By hand." The boy was akwardly gesturing at a grass and twig net. It held enough fish for all nine of them, let alone Sokka and Zuko.

"Having fun, Aang?" Zuko smirked.

"What about you?" Aang's usual mischievous glint returned to his eyes.

"That was self-defense. Pure and simple. I was going to be attacked by a wild animal, and my hands were full."

"A wild animal, huh?" Aang gestured behind Zuko, barely containing laughter. Reluctantly, Zuko turned to see what the boy was laughing at. There, sitting next to Zuko's pile of sticks, sat a young foxbuck. Zuko's eyes twitched a little when they settled upon the red creature. That was what he had been so frightened by?

"Regardless," Zuko said as he turned back towards the stream, "what you were doing was decidedly _not_ self-defense. I think that means you lose."

"Those weren't the terms!" Aang stood in a flurry of air. Clearly the young air-bender was no longer trying to hide his bending. "The terms were if we used any of our bending powers. Both of us broke the agreement."

"So what? Neither one of us can tell Sokka, because then the other will say the same thing. Then we will both clean that smelly bison." Zuko trailed off when he saw the glint in Aang's eyes. All air-benders must have been tricksters, thought Zuko.

"I have a better idea. We can keep this between the two of us, and do everything in our power to make Sokka trip up!"

Zuko paused. "That could work," he mused, touching a hand to his chin. A smirk appeared on his face.

"Think about it," Aang pressed. "If we both lost this bet, that means Sokka would win. And then we would never live it down."

"Alright," Zuko said, holding out his hand. "Neither of us says anything. We'll throw this stupid bet back in Sokka's face."

"Not to sabotage it," Aang justified. "Just to ensure that we don't lose. We'll egg him on."

"Deal."

They shook hands, gathered their respective materials, and walked back to camp.


End file.
